CBP Officers at Del Rio Port of Entry Seize $150,000 in Marijuana

DEL RIO, TEXAS – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Del Rio Port of Entry on Thursday seized marijuana valued at $150,000 during a routine examination of a vehicle driven by an East Texas woman. The seizure occurred on July 28, 2011 at Del Rio International Bridge . A CBP officer referred a 2003 Chevy Suburban driven by a 40-year-old female U.S. citizen from Lufkin , Texas for a secondary examination. During the examination, CBP officers discovered anomalies in the rear part of the vehicle. Upon further examination, CBP officers discovered 140 packages hidden throughout the vehicle containing a total of 150 pounds of marijuana. The marijuana has an estimated street value of $150,000.

CBP officers turned the driver over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agents for further investigation and seized the narcotics and the vehicle.

“Our frontline officers maintained their vigilance, applied an effective combination of experience, canines and technology and seized a significant load of narcotics,” said Michael Perez, CBP Port Director, Del Rio . “Seizures like this one reiterate the importance of narcotics interdiction in helping to keep our borders secure.”

A Laredo attorney from a prominent family there was handed a 2 ½-year prison sentence Monday in a Dallas federal court for acting as a bag man for Mexican drug traffickers trying to pay off a government informant.
Alonzo Ramos, 40, admitted that in 2008 he acted as an intermediary for Mexican drug traffickers who wanted to buy the silence of a Houston-based smuggler who’d been busted. Ramos offered $48,500 to Lizandro Tijerina, who was on trial in New Orleans, in exchange for the smuggler’s silence. Tijerina, it turned out, was already cooperating with federal authorities and recorded his conversations with Ramos. Later, federal agents watched as Ramos delivered the cash to one of Tijerina’s relatives in Laredo.